cannot receive vapours, they make use of it, first putting it into the fire, or seething it in water. This they do from the prohibition of eating divers kinds of meats." No. 708.-xv. 13. And bathe his flesh in running water.] The difference between bathing in ordinary and in running water is here strongly marked, by a positive command in favour of the latter. This circumstance was not peculiar to the Jewish ritual, but is to be met with in the Mahometan law, and in the Indian religion. In the Indies it is a most meritorious act to pray to God in the running stream. Bernier's Travels, vol. ii. No. 709.-xv. 17. Every skin.] The same caution that has engaged the eastern people that tend cattle not to sleep in the open air, but to make use of tents, induces them not to sit or lie in their tents on the moist ground, but to make use of some kind of carpeting. The poorer sort of Arabs make use of mats, but others of goat-skins for this purpose. Dr. Chandler says (Trav. in Greece, p. 103.) that he saw some dervishes at Athens sitting on goat-skins: and that he was afterwards conducted into a room, furnished in like manner with the same kind of carpeting, where he was treated with a pipe and coffee by the chief dervish. Skins of goats, as well as sheep and bullocks, must have been among them very valuable things, and as such the priest that offered any burnt-offering was to have its skin. HARMER, vol. iii. p. 68, the No. 710.-xvi. 8. And Aaron shall cast lots upon two goats, one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scape-goat.] The manner in which these lots were cast does not appear in scripture; but if we may credit the rabbies, there was an urn brought to the high priest, into which he threw two wooden lots, on one of which was written, for the Lord; on the other azazel, the word which we render the scape-goat. After he had shaken them, he put both his hands into the urn, and brought up the lots, one in each hand; and as the goats stood, one on each side of him, their fate was determined by the lot that came up in the hand next to them. If the right hand brought up the lot for the Lord, they regarded it as a good omen. If the left hand brought up that lot, they accounted it as a bad omen, and an indication that God was not pacified. JENNINGS's Jewish Ant. vol. ii. p. 267. No. 711.-xvi. 14. Seven.] The number seven was highly regarded, and thought of great efficacy in religious actions, not only by the Jews, but by the heathens. Apuleius says, Desirous of purifying myself, I wash in the sea, and dip my head seven times in the waves, the divine Pythagoras having taught, that this number is above all others most proper in the concerns of religion. (de Asino aureo, lib. xi.) Very frequent instances of the recurrence of this number are to be found in the scriptures. No. 712.-xviii. 21. Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch.] We have a particular description of this idol in the commentary of Rabbi Simeon upon Jer. vii. he says, "all the houses of idols were in the city of Jerusalem, except that of Moloch, which was out of the city in a separate place. It was a statue with a head of an ox, and the hands stretched out as a man's, who opens his hand to receive something from another. It was hollow within, and there were seven chapels raised, before which the idol was erected. He that offered a fowl or a young pigeon went into the first chapel; if he offered a sheep or a lamb, he went into the second; if a ram, into the third; if a calf, into the fourth; if a bullock, into the fifth; if an ox, into the sixth; but he only who offered his own. son went into the seventh chapel; and kissed the idol Moloch, as it is written, Hos. xiii. 2. Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. The child was placed before the idol, and a fire made under it till it became red-hot. Then the priest took the child, and put him into the glowing hands of Moloch; and lest the parents should hear his cries, they beat drums to drown the noise. Therefore the place was called Tophet, from Thoph, Thuppim, that signifies drums. It was also called Hinnom, because of the children's roaring, from the Hebrew word naham, to roar, or because the priests said to the parents, Jehenelah, It will be of advantage to you." No. 713.-xix. 27. Ye shall not round the corners of your head.] The Hebrew word translated corners, signifies also the extremities of any thing: and the meaning is, they were not to cut their hair equal, behind and before; as the worshippers of the stars and the planets, particularly the Arabians, did. There are those however, who think it refers to a superstitious custom amongst the Gentiles, in their mourning for the dead. They cut off their hair, and that round about; and threw it into the sepulchre with the bodies of their relations and friends; and sometimes laid it upon the face or the breast of the dead, as an offering to the infernal gods, whereby they thought to appease them, and make them kind to the deceased. See Maimonides de Idol. c. xii. 1, 2. 5. No. 714.-xix. 28. Nor print any marks upon you.] The painting of the bodies of eminent personages, or of others upon remarkable occasions, is known to have obtained in countries very remote from each other. Our British ancestors were painted, and Dampier, the celebrated voyager, brought over an East Indian prince, whose skin was very curiously stained with various figures. The wild Arabs adorn themselves in this manner according to D'Arcieux, who tells us, among other things, in his description of the preparatives for an Arab wedding, that the women draw, with a certain kind of ink, the figures of flowers, fountains, houses, cypress-trees, antelopes, and other animals, upon all the parts of the bride's body. (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 223.) This the Israelites were forbidden to do. No. 715.--xix. 32. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man.] The Jewish writers say that the rule was, to rise up to them when they were at the distance of four cubits; and as soon as they were gone by, to sit down again, that it might appear they rose up purely out of respect to them. Most civilized people have adopted the practice. Juvenal says, Credebant hoc grande nefas et morte piandum, Si juvenis vetulo nor assurrexerat Sat. xiii. v. 54. The Lacedæmonians had a law, that aged persons should be reverenced like fathers. See also Homer, Il. xv. 204. et xxiii. 788. Odyss. xiii. 141. No. 716.-xix. 36. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin shall ye have.] Fraudulent practices were severely punished among the Egyptians, whether they were of a public or private wrong. Diodorus Siculus tells us, the law commands that both the hands should be cut off of those that adulterated money, or substituted new weights. Jupiter ipse duas æquato examine lances VIRG. En, xii. 725. Jove sets the beam, in either scale he lays DRYDEN. No. 717.-xxiii. 24. A memorial of blowing of trumpets.] Some commentators have conjectured, that this feast of trumpets was designed to preserve the memory of Isaac's deliverance by the substitution of a ram to be sacrificed in his stead: it has sometimes been called by the Jews, the binding of Isaac. But it is more probable that it derived its name from the kind of trumpets (ram's horns) then used, and that it was intended to solemnize the beginning of the new year, to remind them of the beginning of the world, and to excite their thankfulness for the fruits, benefits, and blessings of the preceding year. The extraordinary blowing of the trumpets by the priests at that time in all their cities, as well as at Jerusalem, where two silver trumpets were also used at the temple, as well as those of horn, when the Levites sung Psalm lxxxi. was well adapted to promote those important objects. No. 718.-xxiv. 11. And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name, and cursed.] The words, of the Lord, which immediately follow, blasphemed the name, being put in italics in our translation, shew that they form no part of the original text. Among the Palmyrenians it is a custom to inscribe on their marbles, "To the blessed name be fear for ever." "To the blessed name for ever good and merciful, be fear." This is exactly similar to the above cited passage, respecting the blasphemy of the Israelitish woman's son. FRAGMENTS, No. 490. |